The Shenendehowa High School Musical Company’s production of Legally Blonde this year will once again be performed with the help of a live pit orchestra comprised of the school’s music students. The group started rehearsing under the direction of band teacher Brian Carucci in December 2024 and they’re now just weeks away from their performance.
Megan Lai, an 11th grade violinist in the pit, says she is optimistic about how the orchestra is playing so far.
“We are starting to sound a lot better on the songs, and hopefully it will be even better once the hired musicians come in,” Lai said.
Despite a recent injury to her left hand during gym class, she says she’s recovered and ready to play again.
“I hurt my hand playing basketball, but it’s ok now, so I can play,” Lai said. “I had to sit out of some orchestra classes.”
Senior Ajani Grady-Willis is the sole student drummer of the pit orchestra. He was in the pit orchestra last year, too.
“It’s pretty cool, it’s pretty fun,” he said. “It feels like the whole show kind of relies on the music, so it’s important for us to know what we’re doing.”
Teresa Rodrigues, a 12th grade saxophonist in the orchestra, says that being involved in the production is an enjoyable experience.
“It’s going great,” Rodrigues said. “I was in it last year and I think it’s even going better than it was last year. Mr. Carucci is always fun to have as a director. We’ve been playing with the singers, and it’s a lot of fun. They sound really good.”
Rodrigues described the orchestra’s rehearsal process as they start practicing their music with the accompaniment of the singers in the cast.
“We had two rehearsals where it was just us playing through the songs, and then we recently had the singers come in,” she said. “They’ll sing one song, and for that song, we’ll play with them and see their feedback. It’s fun. After February break, we’re going to come back and have three rehearsals before tech week.”
Some members of this year’s cast expressed their feelings for the orchestra. Aleksy Pagette, an 11th grade cast member who plays Dewey in Legally Blonde, said the live music is “a nice alternative” to a pre-recorded track.
“The pit orchestra is really cool,” Pagette said. “Singing with them is nice because we can choose how long we want our spoken lines to be within each song.”
Olivia Thayer, a senior in the cast’s ensemble, echoed Pagette’s statements.
“I prefer working with a live pit orchestra over a pre-recorded track because you can really make the songs and scenes your own, and do it your own way without being restricted to the timing of the original track,” she said.
